United States Unemployment

United States: Payroll growth solid but unemployment unchanged at 5.3%

August 7, 2015

Non-farm payrolls grew by 215,000 in July, which was below June’s upward revised increase of 231,000 (previously reported: +223,000). July’s result just beat market expectations of a 213,000 increase and suggests that the economy is recovering at a modest pace. It is unclear if this result will give the Fed sufficient confidence as it considers the possibility of making an initial interest rate hike in September.

The private sector was almost entirely responsible for new hiring, having added 210,000 jobs in July. The largest gains were registered in professional business services and retail trade. The public sector added 5,000 jobs in July.

The unemployment rate—derived from a different survey—held at June’s 5.3% in July. The print was in line with market expectations. While the unemployment rate remained within the Fed’s target zone of 5.2%-5-5%, the labor participation rate is still low and average hourly earnings increased only 0.2% percent over the previous month.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect unemployment to average 5.5% this year, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2016, the panel expects the unemployment rate to drop to 5.2%.

Author:Carl Kelly, Economist

Sample Report

Looking for forecasts related to Unemployment in United States? Download a sample report now.

United States Economic News

Retail sales grew 0.2% on a seasonally-adjusted month-on-month basis in November, slowing significantly from the upwardly revised 1.1% growth recorded in October (previously reported: +0.8% month-on-month), but nevertheless exceeding market expectations of 0.1%.
The print was mostly weighed on by a contraction in gasoline stations sales (November: -2.3% mom; October: +3.2% mom), mainly reflecting lower prices at the pump in November following the sharp oil price tumble recorded in the previous month—which took some time to feed through to retail prices.

The widely anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on 30 November–1 December concluded with an agreement to temporarily halt the escalation of the trade dispute between the world’s two economic giants.

Sign up for our newsletter

Cookies Policy: We use third-party cookies to improve our services by analyzing your browsing habits.
By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. For more information on cookies and how you can disable them, see our "Cookies Policy".
Close